I’m paraphrasing some media reports from the past week :
“An Australian expeditioner has been medically evacuated from Antarctica, following a multinational effort by land, air and sea that spanned thousands of miles on the remote continent.
The Australian, United States and Chinese Antarctic programs collaborated on the five-day operation, which Australian officials on Friday called “an outstanding success” thanks to teamwork and, of course, good weather during the Antarctic summer.
“The synergy of operating capabilities, incredible expertise and a favourable weather window enabled us to bring the patient back from Antarctica to Australia within a week,” said Kim Ellis, the Australian Antarctic Division director, in a statement.
Officials declined to release information about the individual, citing medical confidentiality, but said the patient’s condition is not related to COVID-19. The patient had been stationed at the Davis research station in east Antarctica.
The Chinese icebreaker MV Xue Long 2 happened to be in transit to China’s Zhongshan station, about 75 miles from Davis, officials said. On Dec. 20, the ship’s helicopters transferred a team of Davis expeditioners to a site 25 miles inland, where they spent several days constructing a ski landing area or skiway.
Australian expeditioners constructed a skiway for aircraft equipped with skis at a site near the Davis research station.
Meanwhile, 870 miles east along the southern Antarctic coast, another team worked to prepare a glacial runway at the Australian-operated Wilkins Aerodrome. The aerodrome is a terminal for intercontinental air service, located about 40 miles southeast of Australia’s Casey Station.
The U.S. flew a ski-equipped aircraft 1,300 miles from its McMurdo Station in Antarctica to the aerodrome, where it picked up an Australian doctor. It then made a 1,700-mile round trip to retrieve the patient from the skiway near Davis and return to the aerodrome.
From there, an Australian Airbus A319 picked up the expeditioner and flew some 1,800 miles to the city of Hobart, Australia, arriving just before Christmas Eve.”
The weather in Antarctica briefly offered a window of opportunity: the diplomatic window has also opened briefly – a wise leader would seize this opportunity to extend the hand of friendship, cooperation and mutual respect to the Chinese in recognition of their unconditional and vital support in this medical evacuation… and then keep talking.
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Nah.
He should have sincerely thanked them then shut up – he does his best work with his mouth closed.
Also, the Chinese would go crazy looking for the catch.
The only thing China wouldbe looking for acknowledgemet from Morrison is he needs to think before openinghis mouth,#auspol
Bullshit. And we wouldn’t have done the same? What did the Chinese do that any other human would not have done regardless of race?
Years ago a noticed a prominent sign in a busy workshop which read: “Please ensure that the brain is fully engaged before operating machinery.”
Transformed to modern public policy and diplomacy it could read: “…before operating mouth.”
In that form it could be justly applied to every politician, Party hack and Murdoch minion.
It’s Antarctica! We have all helped each other over the years.
The cuckoo is waltzing, terence, and the common sense from your music should be making the politicians bush with embarrassment that they were too busy with playing with themselves to even consider the cooperation on Antartica.
At the minimum a phone call to relevant chinese department and a public thank you to the chinese Ambassador, on ABC TV.
It could be a good time as Morrison may not want any focus upon his place of worship, Hillsong Church (and friendships) which is under the hammer in UK and US media.
Curiously has not been reported much in Australian political PR (masquerading as) media (except the Daily Telegraph behind pay wall) as that may challenge Australia’s conservative ‘values’….. but has been reported widely in UK by NewsCorp and other tabloids, plus US media on allegations of cult like behaviour, exploitation of members etc.:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/13181357/hillsong-investigation-justin-bieber-carl/
Scotty is on holiday and he deserves a holiday as he has worked so hard at sophistry, obfuscating and basically being derilict in performing his day job. Anyway a telephone would be far to heavy for Scotty to lift let alone understand a telephones functional use or shawly the effort and fuctionality would have been utilised far earlier.